Improvement in steam-boiler furnaces



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TQQ@ m www alum 'UNTTED STATES PATENT .OFFICE JAMES D. VVHELPLEY-AND JACOB J.- STORER, OFBOSTOVN, MASSACHUSETTS.'

IMPROVEMENT IN STEAM-BOILER FHURNACES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No.`|76,280, datedMarchBl, 1868.

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that we, JAMES D. WHELPLEY and JACOB J. STORER, of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Setting Steam-Boilers; and we do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the construction and operation of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, forming a part of this specication, sufficient to enable others skilled in the art to employ our invention.

Our improvement in setting boilers applies mainly to such as are intended to use pulver ized fuel, as patented to us March 13, 1866.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a plan of the boiler as set. Fig. 2 is an end elevation, with the front shield of the fire-box removed. Fig. 3 is a longitudinal section through the ma sonry, showing the fire-box, arch, and fines in section and the boiler in elevation.

A is the fire-box. B is the flue under the boiler, which is so arched as to radiate heat upon the boiler, the curvature `of the flue being nearly a segment of a circle, and so arranged as to make a focal axis of heat within the boiler and near its center. D is the boiler, having tubes C or fines. E is the upper flue over the boiler, also similarly arched. F is the chimney or smoke-stack. Gr is the masonry foundation ofthe boiler, and H is the cover of the ripper ue.

J ambs m are built resting upon the grate, and extending up toward the arch, so as to make a narrow grate-surface and a concave radiating-surface on the lower side under the arch.

Ash-pits and cinder-traps are rigidly to be excluded from the flues, except, perhaps, at x and y-the two ends of the boiler, and the only places where ashes or cinder could accumulate.

Over the re-box is constructed a brick arch, Il, somewhat separated from the boiler, and preferably made with interstices, so as to allow a transmission of heat through to the boiler.

The concave fines B and E should be of such curves as to radiate in lines, which come to a focal line within the water-space of the boiler.

To employ this apparatus with pulverized fuel, a small re of solid or lump fuel is built upon the grate-bars, and when the brick-work 'l of the arch and fire-box is raised toa red heat,

begin to feed pulverized fuel through pipe la over the fire, this passing through the axis of radiation made by the inclined jambs m, and the arch I is heated to incandescence, and consumes with the air-blast which carries it in, and, passing forward through the concave lower iiue, returns through the tubes, and again goes forward through the upper ue to the uptake. Just enough air is admitted below the gratebars to prevent fusing the bars. The blast carrying pulverized coal can be passed directly through the boiler tubes, instead of through an exterior ue.

The arrangement of fire-box with inclined jambs and fire-arch is of advantage in burning solid coal, particularly the jambs 5 and the concave flue radiating directly upon the boiler, and conveying the rays to a focal line within the water-space, is also of material advantage.

In experiments now in progress under inspection of the Navy Department, a relative advantage in economy of twelve and a half per cent. in favor of pulverized fuel has been attained in a boiler set upon this plan, but without the upper iiue, and with a heat at the uptake of 3900 Fahrenheit average, and the advantage of the inclined jambs and concave lower flue has been shown by experiment to be quite material, the best average evaporation attained without them, with lump-coal, having been 8.25 pounds of water, from temperature of 1400 Fahrenheit, to the pound of coal, while the best average evaporation with their use, from the same temperature, was 9.13. In employing pulverized fuel an evaporation of nearly twelve pounds of water to the pound of coal has been reached, and was an average during six hours. The best proportion of fuel to be burned on the grate-bars, when employing the fuel-blast, is. about one-third of the whole.

In some cases it may be desirable to have a cylinder or frustuni of a cone of brick-work, instead of simply an arch and jambs, and in this case the grate-bars would be made in a frame and hinged at one side to the jambs, while to the other side would be hinged an arch of brick-work or fire-clay, so that the grate-bars could be swung down and the arch swung up whenever desired, making a cylindrical or nearly cylindrical or conoidal chamb'er of ignition for the pulverized fuel, as in our furnace'patent of November 13,1867.

We claim as our invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent- A 1. The inclined jambs m and fire-brick arch 1f, arrangedwithin the re-box, to secure an axial focus of radiation Within the fire-box, substantially as described.

2. The arrangement of inclined jambs in the fire-box and concave radiating-flue beneath the boiler, tov utilize the heat of radiation more perfectly, substantialbT as described.

3. The arrangement ofthe surrounding masonry iiues of the setting surrounding the boiler, with concave interior surfaces toward 'the boiler, so curved that the axis oi' their ra- 1 JAMES D. WHELPLEY. J AGOB J. STORER.

Witnesses:

THos. WM. CLARKE, Gnus. J. BATEMAN. 

